I need some advice here.

My 7 year old started his keyboard lessons in Oct last year, he had never played before. We are not a musical family, I just thought this would help get him off the TV/xbox. Initially, he did not like the idea but he has got to enjoy a bit more. Now he practices for a minimum of 30 minutes everyday, without fail.

By December he was playing all the songs in Complete Keyboard Player 1 & 2 and his teacher moved him onto Grade 1 keyboard and in March, on his teacher's advice he moved onto Grade 2 lessons before he could take the Grade 1 exam.

Our church pianist convinced me that he would be better off doing piano rather than keyboard (not that I know the difference). After speaking to his teacher he started piano lessons in May. A month later his teacher moved to Grade 2 because he said it would be a waste of time to continue with Grade 1 lessons, as he was much better than Grade 1. He is now fluent in his pieces and his teacher was really pleased with his progress.

Unfortunately, we have just moved and we have had to find a new teacher. The old teacher was preparing him for LCM exams and the new teacher has said he has had no previous experience whatsoever with LCM. He enters all his students for ABRSM. Two weeks ago, my son did play for him the LCM pieces and he was impressed but he was uncomfortable taking him on to do LCM (Unless if we insisted). Last week I bought the AB scales and exam pieces and he has started practising these.

My questions (I need advice)
1. Should I register him for ABRSM exams now, he'll have roughly two months to practise the peices. (After reading some blogs I notice that many kids take up to 5 years before doing their Grade 1. I have not had any of the teachers use the word 'precocious' with him) Is there adequate time to change exam boards without putting him under undue pressure? The closing date is 2 days away?
2. Should I register him for LCM exams? His new teacher is clearly unhappy to guide him on this course because he does have the experience.
3. Should I forget this sittiing and register him for the next sitting? My only worry with this option is that he might get discouraged as he has been talking about taking these exams since May. Or should I start him on Grade 3 pieces, I am thinking may be he will be good enough to move onto Grade 3 by the next sitting. This way, he won't feel like he's not progressing??

Unfortunately, his new teacher is away this week and so I cannot even get his opinion on this. I did not realise that the ABRSM exams were just two months away when I spoke to him two weeks ago.

I would leave entering him for now but that aside I'm not so sure he will be ready for grade 3 next sitting. DS learning seems to mirror your Childs - got to grade 1 in four weeks, grade 2 in three months and when we attempted some grade 3 pieces it was too much as he'd missed out on so many stages. I'd just leave it up to the teacher to decide.

Usually it's the teacher who puts in the exam entries so I wouldn't enter him for any exam without consulting the teacher first. As to which exam board, some teachers like to stick to the one they are familiar with but it's only a matter of reading the syllabus and regulations. Though there are differences essentially the learning is the same as far as playing goes.
I'd discuss exam entry with the teacher but with deadlines on us it's likely to be spring term before your son could take an exam now. Let the teacher decide the appropriate level. Don't forget that there is some development necessary between exam grades though your son appears to be moving quite quickly. Instead of pushing for exam entry it might be a good idea to let his new teacher have time to find the level that's most appropriate to be working at. Because of his age you may find that although he's quick in some areas he still needs time to mature in others. It's not unusual for teacher not to want to enter a child for an exam in the first term.
Remember that exams are only a measure of progress and not the main purpose in learning to play.

Hi, ncuj, and welcome to the forum.

As sbhoa says - teachers don't usually enter new pupils for exams - the deadlines are always quite near the beginning of term. I think it's good that your son will have a chance to work on some non-exam stuff while he's getting to know his teacher - and the teacher will get a better idea of his level by seeing him tackle things from scratch rather than hearing pieces that he has practised exhaustively at home.

My son is 7 as well and his levels on the piano are very mixed - he can master Grade 2 standard pieces quite quickly because he practises well and has a good memory. His sight reading, especially in the left hand, is pretty dreadful. There's been talk of Grade 1 and 2 exams but I wouldn't be at all suprised if he ends up beetling along without exams for quite a while yet.

Hello ncuj,

Welcome!

It is a tough one. We've had similar dilemmas in the past about what grades to do. Our teacher recommended skipping Grade 1 and doing G2 the following term, but DS wanted to do all the grades and ended up doing 4 grades over 4 terms. Like your son my DS practises daily (usually!!). He also really enjoys the challenge of the exams, we know that they aren't the 'be-all and end-all', but we know that they spur DS on!!

We too have recently changed teachers and had a tough time over it, but as we still use 'old teacher' we get his input too. Only yesterday he offered to enter DS for the ABRSM Session C exams, but he said that we could find him having to take the exam in 3 1/2 weeks time! So you may find the same if you entered your DS. Would he be fully prepared in that time?

I think that pushing the teacher to put him through a board that he's not familiar with may not be the best idea. Although you could do the research and guide them both through the requirements, is it really that important to you than waiting a few extra months? Also which board would you like to carry on with? Might it not be better to do the board which you will stay with and then your DS 'gets used' to the exam set up?

Also I would say that I think DS found it easier to get into the swing of things with the exams by starting at the lower grades. Maybe doing Grade 2 in Session A would be better, then into Grade 3 for Session B if he is ready! If your DS starts getting 'itchy feet' with the exam pieces (we have that sometimes) then just get him to practise the required things and give him some time to play other things that he enjoys. Playing other pieces helps with their sight-reading skills and also helps to build their rep, DS loves to play his fast jigs when he's had enough of his set pieces!!

Old Teacher said that he has taken on a pupil this term whose parents wanted him to do his Grade 1 this session. Teach didn't think that he was ready (he couldn't play the pieces for a start!) and so said that if the pupil could play all the pieces, scales etc to a reasonable standard the following lesson (a kind of mock exam) then he would enter him. Pupil came along, didn't do very well and then told Teach that he didn't want to do the exam yet anyway! So that was decided!

Just a few things for you to think about! Good Luck!

Thank you everyone for your responses.

I have taken your advice, DS will be skipping this sitting. I will let the new teacher decide on the level we'll be resuming lessons at.

Once again, thank you for your advice.